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My wife was recently rear-ended and is being cited as 70% at fault by the insurance company. She had just finished backing up and placed her vehicle in drive at the point of impact. I visited a company called Crash Forensics located in Lenexa, KS which extracted the EDR data and generated a report utilizing the Bosch Crash Data Retrieval system.

I provided the insurance company with the HEX file extract and also a copy of the report and they maintained that the evidence is not consistent with the eyewitness account and that the report is not admissible due to the fact that it does not show her shifter position for the 5 seconds before the crash, nor does it state the time the actual crash occurred.

I have attached a copy of the report and also the raw data file.

Is it possible to determine the following?

- What time did the crash actually occur?
- What was the shifter position during each of the recorded seconds prior to the crash?

Also, the vehicle that struck her was a 2008 Nisan Versa. Does that model of vehicle have an EDR? I have read mixed reviews.

It shows the shift position at the time of the event as DRIVE. It shows that the impact for the recorded collision is rear-to-front relative to this car after it was at a stop.

NO it does NOT show date and time of the crash and NO it does not show the shift position for the 5 seconds before the crash but the notion that either of those is required for admissibility is, well, laughable.

If the damage matches, if other aspects match, if there's no other fairly significant rearender that this car's ever experienced, where else would the data come from?

The first test is: is this data from this crash? That can be answered by more than or other things than date and time.

You indicated that your wife was being cited as 70% at fault "by the insurance company." Is that YOUR insurance company or the other driver's insurance company?

While the EDR data does not have a date/time stamp, there are several pieces of data that would suggest that this is your event. As stated by Rusty, the recorded event was a rearend impact, as the vehicle had a positive longitudinal velocity change. Also, the the data indicates that there has only been one (1) front/rear crash event that resulted in the airbag system being triggered (woken up) in the history of the airbag module installed in the vehicle, and that event is the one being reported in this download.

Using the pre-crash data, you will find that the four seconds of information indicates that the vehicle moved a distance of about 11 feet during that recorded time period. If the vehicle was simultaneously backing and turning, such as typical when backing out of a parking spot or a driveway, it's likely that the vehicle traveled much more than 11 feet during its backing maneuver before the driver shifted into Drive. Because of the amount of time it took her to back her vehicle, it may a be reasonable argument that the other driver had more than sufficient time to see your wife backing into the roadway and avoid an impact.

Rusty Haight wrote:It shows the shift position at the time of the event as DRIVE. It shows that the impact for the recorded collision is rear-to-front relative to this car after it was at a stop.

NO it does NOT show date and time of the crash and NO it does not show the shift position for the 5 seconds before the crash but the notion that either of those is required for admissibility is, well, laughable.

If the damage matches, if other aspects match, if there's no other fairly significant rearender that this car's ever experienced, where else would the data come from?

The first test is: is this data from this crash? That can be answered by more than or other things than date and time.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to the post.
@Rusty Haight, this is the first crash my wife has been in and we are the original owners of the vehicle. The damage does match the EDR readouts but there is an eyewitness accounting of the events that conflict with my wife’s version of the story (which is 100% consistent with the EDR). The eyewitness “thinks” she saw differently.

actar670 wrote:You indicated that your wife was being cited as 70% at fault "by the insurance company." Is that YOUR insurance company or the other driver's insurance company?

While the EDR data does not have a date/time stamp, there are several pieces of data that would suggest that this is your event. As stated by Rusty, the recorded event was a rearend impact, as the vehicle had a positive longitudinal velocity change. Also, the the data indicates that there has only been one (1) front/rear crash event that resulted in the airbag system being triggered (woken up) in the history of the airbag module installed in the vehicle, and that event is the one being reported in this download.

Using the pre-crash data, you will find that the four seconds of information indicates that the vehicle moved a distance of about 11 feet during that recorded time period. If the vehicle was simultaneously backing and turning, such as typical when backing out of a parking spot or a driveway, it's likely that the vehicle traveled much more than 11 feet during its backing maneuver before the driver shifted into Drive. Because of the amount of time it took her to back her vehicle, it may a be reasonable argument that the other driver had more than sufficient time to see your wife backing into the roadway and avoid an impact.

@actar670 Our insurance company was the one offering 70% initially but after seeing the EDR readout they kind of went to bat for us.
I will share your information with our adjuster. Unfortunately the small claims adjusters seem to all be confused by this data. I have even had to explain to many of them what an Event Data Recorder is.